By  Garrett Strand

 

On Friday, March 1, an event called Game On Against Cancer was held at Games and Things on Kingston Pike in West Knoxville.

 

Game On is an annual event in its second year that raises money for the Thompson Cancer Survival Center Foundation. Thompson Cares provides financial assistance for patients who need help to meet the expenses of basic necessities like housing, transportation, medical supplies and medication.

 

Tickets for the event were fifty dollars each. The event gave local citizens a chance to come out and play a variety of games against local celebrities in music, television and radio.

 

For each game played, the locals had to have a token and each token could be purchased for twenty dollars each. Some of the games played were: Corn Hole, Table Tennis (ping pong), Air Hockey and Dart throwing.

 

Celebrities at the event included country musicians Con Hunley and his nephew Stephen Hunley, Jimmy Hyams, Jeff Jacoby, Will West and Mickey Dearstone from The Sports Animal 99.1. The event also included several people from WVLT channel 8 and Wate 6 news teams along with News talk 98.7’s Hallerin Hilton Hill and Mayors Madeline Rogero and Tim Burchett.

 

Tom Miller of WIVK 107.7 and The Sports Animal 99.1 was the announcer for the evening. His job was to announce game winners and keep everyone informed on when new celebrities arrived.

 

During the event there were several entertaining competitions, and I will highlight two of them. The first was a best two out of three game of Table Tennis played between News talk 98.7’s Hallerin Hilton Hill and Sports Animal 99.1’s Jimmy Hyams. The competitors gave each other everything they had with Hallerin Hilton Hill taking the first game and Jimmy Hyams taking the next two but not without a fight from Hallerin. After the three games of Table Tennis against Hallerin Hilton Hill, Jimmy Hyams could be heard saying that he was already tired and still had two more hours of exciting games ahead of him.

 

While that was going on there was also a lot of action where the Corn Hole game was set up. 107.7 WIVK’s Jimmy Holt and country musician Con Hunley were just a couple of the celebrities to play a few games throughout the event. Con Hunley was involved in a game where he and a local citizen were paired together against Olympic bronze medallist and Covenant Health spokesperson Missy Kane with another local citizen as her teammate. The game started out with Con Hunley’s team up 13 – 3 but Missy Kane’s team battled back and won the game 21 – 15 when Con’s team could not find the boards with their bean bags.

 

When a local won a game, they were given a medal to wear around their neck, to show they won a game. Throughout the night there was a contest to see who could get the most medals, and whoever did won a two-night stay at Acorn Ridge in Wears Valley.

 

A silent auction was also held during the event. Items in the auction ranged from basketballs signed by Tennessee Vols basketball coach Cuonzo Martin and Lady Vols coach Holly Warlick, A Smokies Baseball ticket and luxury box package, a trip to New Orleans, a golf trip, and a football signed by new Tennessee Volunteers head football coach Butch Jones just to name a few.

 

Even though someone won every game that was played and every item that was up for auction, the real winner on this night was The Thompson Cancer Survival Center Foundation and the patients who will receive the help they need. Every dollar that was paid during the four hour long event gets donated to The Thompson Cancer Survival Center Foundation.